Road defects or potholes

February 2026

Due to the high number of potholes currently appearing, it may take longer than 2 days to attend and carry out a repair. The council is prioritising the repairs based on risk.

The council is responsible for inspecting, repairing and maintaining all public roads across the city.

The inspection of the city's roads falls in to two categories:

• Safety
• Condition

Safety

For safety, our roads are inspected on a regular basis depending on their location and volume of traffic:

• All public roads are inspected at least once a year - these include roads in residential areas
• Busier roads are inspected monthly - these include roads in busier areas and important transport links

These inspections identify defects, such as potholes, that would be considered dangerous to the road user. Once identified, we will generally carry out the appropriate repairs within 24 hours.

Condition

We also inspect the condition of roads annually.

These inspections provide the information we use to prepare our planned works programmes.

Reporting defects and potholes

Our inspections are one method we use to identify potholes or other road defects.  You can also report defects to us.

Report a Road Defect or Pothole

Please tell us if you want us to contact you with details of the remedial action we will take.

Remedial action

If any defect meets the council's intervention criteria, we normally make repairs within a further 24 hours of completing our investigation.

The council generally considers intervention on a pothole where it is at least 40mm deep.

However, other factors will also determine whether remedial action can be taken:

• Location of the defects
• The type of road
• Position of the defect within the road

Highway maintenance programme

The Highway Maintenance Programme details the council's planned maintenance work on carriageways and footways.

The programme is prepared using information from:

• Condition inspections
• Traffic volumes
• Reports from members of the public or Elected Members
• Highway Inspectors' observations
• Considering accident claim locations

The Area Place Boards and their associated Area Committees are consulted and their recommendations incorporated within the programme.

Once the programme is approved, the current and previous years' programmes are available from downloads.